From Publishers Weekly
London-based journalist Cohen (Chasing the Red, White, and Blue) reports in this tight, perceptive study that crime-which has soared in the past 10 years-is now South Africa's biggest growth industry. Rather than taking a broad sociological approach, Cohen brilliantly uses one store-and its owners, customers, staff, thieves and swindlers-as a microcosm of the greater problem. Harry Sher and Jack Rubin own a furniture and appliance store on Johannesburg's Jules Street, where "crooked men thrive." The business endures armed robberies, defaulting creditors, theft by staff and a range of ingenious thievery schemes. Cohen cites the obvious reasons for the staggering crime rates, including the disparity between the haves and the have-nots (which still falls primarily along racial lines) and soaring unemployment. But Cohen, not satisfied with easy answers, persuasively contends that the problem is more complex. He argues, for instance, that South Africa had developed an apartheid township culture that saw crime (especially against whites) as honorable. More interestingly, criminal activity is not unique to the black population, a fact that Cohen makes clear through the case of Harry's younger brother, Ronny, who is fired after dipping one too many times into the company till. As a white security worker admits, "You look around in the new South Africa and you see people minting [money]. And you think-why not me?" While the book's subject may seem narrow and remote, the strength of Cohen's characterizations and narrative provide for a portrait of the new South Africa that many will find illuminating, fascinating and, sadly, universal. Photos not seen by PW.
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Review
"One of the most important books you will read this year." --Sunday Times, South Africa "A perceptive and original take on the causes and consequences of South Africa's current crime wave....Social analysis with verve and insight." --Kirkus Reviews"Acclaimed British-South African author David Cohen presents a pressing empirical question about South Africa: Just who has stolen from whom? The balance of detachment and intimacy is Cohen's greatest strength...This is not so much a book about crime as it is about relative moralities."--This Day, South Africa"An important piece of reportage that vividly and sensitively demonstrates how difficult it is for societies, where justice has long been perverted, to change overnight. ...A comprehensive account of the current condition that also does much to explain the failing grade in crime on the national report card."--Washington Times"Rather than taking a broad sociological approach, Cohen brilliantly uses one store-and its owners, customers, staff, thieves and swindlers-as a microcosm of the greater problem. The strength of Cohen's characterizations and narrative provide for a portrait of the new South Africa that many will find illuminating, fascinating and, sadly, universal."--Publishers Weekly "A startlingly refreshing examination of the new South Africa's cathartic rebirth [and] one of the first books to deal with the story behind the headlines."--South African Times, London
From the Inside Flap
"The true story of two elderly brothers-in-law who run a furniture business in Johannesburg. Since 1994, their lives have been a turmoil of theft, betrayal and family strife as the new South Africa helps itself to their stock...David Cohen has gone some way to providing Johannesburg with its own Mordecai Richler."--Evening StandardBrothers-in-law Harry and Jack run a Johannesburg furniture business that is being robbed repeatedly. The investigation of the crime reveals that the perpetrators lie even closer than the proprietors expected--and explores also how the social forces at work in South Africa today have made crime the country's biggest growth industry.Written on the tenth anniversary of the fall of apartheid, People Who Have Stolen From Me describes a nation in the throes of rebuilding itself, through the eyes of two witty, perceptive men."One of the most important books you will read this year." --Sunday Times, South Africa "A perceptive and original take on the causes and consequences of South Africa's current crime wave....Social analysis with verve and insight." --Kirkus Reviews "Acclaimed British-South African author David Cohen presents a pressing empirical question about South Africa: Just who has stolen from whom? The balance of detachment and intimacy is Cohen's greatest strength...This is not so much a book about crime as it is about relative moralities." --This Day, South Africa "An important piece of reportage that vividly and sensitively demonstrates how difficult it is for societies, where justice has long been perverted, to change overnight. ...A comprehensive account of the current condition that also does much to explain the failing grade in crime on the national report card." --Washington Times"Rather than taking a broad sociological approach, Cohen brilliantly uses one store-and its owners, customers, staff, thieves and swindlers-as a microcosm of the greater problem. The dn0 strength of Cohen's characterizations and narrative provide for a portrait of the new South Africa that many will find illuminating, fascinating and, sadly, universal."--Publishers Weekly"A startlingly refreshing examination of the new South Africa's cathartic rebirth [and] one of the first books to deal with the story behind the headlines." --South African Times, LondonDavid Cohen, an award-winning journalist and a native of Johannesburg, is the author of Chasing the Red, White, and Blue (Picador 2001). He lives in London.
